


Ignorance

by Left_Handed_Darkness



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Microaggressions, Rumours, Saviéran Ledrassi is the only person capable of burning a Blood Mage, and above all else he is done with the fact that the Silver Covenant exist, general ignorance, he is done with humans' shit and he's done with elves' shit, petty revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23758231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Left_Handed_Darkness/pseuds/Left_Handed_Darkness
Summary: Saviéran Ledrassi is not impressed with the rumours being spread by his human classmates.Done as part of the Bad Things Happen Bingo, prompt: Fantastic Racism
Kudos: 6
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Ignorance

The sun shone over the violet city, though Saviéran Ledrassi's disposition was far from cheery. For one, it was weather that made him feel cranky at best, and secondly, the humans were at it again.

Not that they ever said anything to his face, but some people were bloody loud whisperers or couldn't keep their mouths shut.

He would have thought that students of the Kirin Tor would be above petty gossip - particularly when that gossip concerned close allies, but…

"I bet it's the ears. I bet they're like,  _ super _ sensitive. And not just to noise." The hushed voice came from the opposite side of the bookshelf. The accent was a coarse Lordaeronian dialect rather than the clipped and precise tones from Dalaran - the latter being something he'd come to mimic in the recent days. 

Everyone got rather snotty about Alterac. Oh, he was sorry, the _ former kingdom _ of Alterac.

"Yeah, and I reckon they melt at a touch. But you know what I heard? They mark territory - it's what those fangs are for. Biting one another and all th-"

Saviéran exhaled through his nostrils loudly, closing the substantial tome before him with a heavy  **thud** .  _ Melondrath's Divination Theory for Advanced Students _ was the sort of text that one could use as a doorstop - or an impromptu weapon. And given the frankly inane conversation, he was of half a mind to use it for just that purpose.

Now illusion wasn't a school that held much interest for him; he understood the basics, but the truth was that his interests lay elsewhere. However, he’d paid enough attention to his classes that a whisper and a gesture later, his own visage was overlaid with the long ears and whiskery eyebrows of one Archmage Valserian.

Long strides carried him to the other side of the bookshelf, to where the gaggle of  _ decidedly human _ apprentices clustered around a table, its surface a mess of disorganised papers, quills, and textbooks whilst they wittered on amongst themselves.

“-she died of heartbreak not long after, isn’t that so sad?”

“Yeah, but can you imagine?  _ Soulmates _ . Bonding so closely that you can feel the heart and mind of a loved one as if it were your own.”

“And can you imagine the ridiculous scandals that bored  _ infant _ humans spread around - and about their closest allies of all people. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you were sired in a pigsty and raised by swine. That  _ is _ a human habit, is it not?”

Silence fell and quills clattered onto the table alongside jaws. Empty gormless eyes gazed up at ‘Valserian’ in abject horror, whilst the gears in their heads slowly turned, churning over the realisation that their conversation had been overheard by a senior member of staff.

“Once you have wiped those ridiculous looks off your faces, I want you to start writing apology letters. And I want them on my desk - signed - by tomorrow morning. Is that clear?” ‘Valserian’ shot the apprentices a glare, before turning on his heel with an audible 'hmph' and marching back from whence he came..

The illusion was quick to fade - but by that time, Saviéran was already smothering his own laughter between the pages of _Advanced Divination_ and a hooded cloak.

* * *

“No offence meant to the lesser part of your heritage, of course.” the magistrix proffered, not batting an eyelash or even sparing a thought - it was if she’d only just remembered whose company she was in the presence of.

“That’s alright, my father was only a farstrider, so I’m sure he wouldn’t take offence. And all things considered my mother could have done better - perhaps the swineherd from Tarren Mill would have been a far more noble soul than a pointy-eared prick and his wandering dick?”

Narindiel blinked sheepishly and coughed politely into a gently closed fist, breaking eye contact for a moment.

“My apologies, I’m used to seeing the worst humanity has to offer - the fear and the bile.”

“In all honesty there’s no ‘better half’ to whatever distant shreds of a family I have. Humans, elves, they’re all capable of the same ignorance and tribalism that they accuse one another of.” Saviéran rambled on with a vague shrug and a flippant gesture. “In the end, they see something foreign when they need a scapegoat, and an ally only when they think that they can use you.”

“That much is true. I don’t think there’s any faction on Azeroth that hasn’t acted selfishly or impulsively. The history between the Horde and Alliance is one of a tangled web of assumptions and bullheadedness, and in the end it might as well boil down to two people - one red and one blue - pointing fingers and screaming that the other one started it.”

“Yes, that’s why I think that the faction leaders all ought to jump into a pit and sort it out like adults.” The half-elf shot Narindiel a mischievous grin, eliciting a chuckle from the Blood Mage. “Besides, have you  _ met _ the Silver Covenant? If there’s anyone who owns the leading trophy for tribalism, it’s them and their obsession with  _ purity _ and  _ brotherhood _ .”

“I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting them directly, but I remember the rhetoric they preached prior to their exile from Quel’thalas. It was sentiment over practicality and dangerous sentiment at that - we were starving and they were proposing a fast. Have you ran into them previously?”

“Ran into them? They see blue eyes and pointed ears and lay on the charm offensive. Empty nonsense about banding together against the darkness, as if sharing blood meant sharing values and methods. I might bear a passing resemblance to the Quel’dorei, but the similarities end there. If they knew who I was and where my path travelled, they would consider me as ‘tainted’ as they do you.” The grin faded into a more somber look, one that could easily be accompanied by a weary sigh - yet it never came. 

“And that’s what separates fairweather ‘allies’ from people worth believing in. If someone’s aid requires you to dance to their tune and live up to their own impossible and self-destructive standards, they’re not really friends to begin with - just leeches.”

“Yes, though despite it all, I think that people can rise above all that; above all the othering, the ignorance, and the mistakes. Ignorance is a disease - and one that can be fatal - but it isn’t incurable. To give up? Now that would be a condemnation.” His expression softened into a hopeful smile - despite it all,  _ in spite _ of it all.

**Author's Note:**

> For this I wanted to avoid the immediate things that the trope conjures up associations of. Whilst bigotry can be expressed in outright aggression and verbal abuse; microaggressions, objectification, casual discrimination, and stereotyping are all pervasive evils that people don't always notice - whether it's in other people's behaviour, or their own. I thought that exploring this angle would have more impact than going for more overt examples.
> 
> And as mentioned in The Unhallowed discord chat: whilst I'm not saying the Covenant *are* an ethnonationalist cult, it would be vomit-inducingly easy to frame them that way.


End file.
